Gregori shut down by top seed Sheldon

Sheldon’s Shea Moreno legged out a hard-hit single to right field and, as soon as everyone’s attention was off of her, sprinted into second base.

Moreno scored one play later on a routine ground out to short, never slowing down on the play. The run was a microcosm for Monday evening’s 9-0 Sac-Joaquin Section Division I semifinal win over Gregori.

The top-seeded Huskies didn’t beat the sixth-seeded Jaguars with mammoth home runs or even a flurry of line drives into the gaps. Sheldon instead carved up Gregori with merciless offensive efficiency. The Huskies applied constant pressure and made the most of nine singles.

The loss drops the Jaguars (18-7) into a elimination game on Wednesday. Gregori will take on the loser of the Merced-Tracy game, which wasn’t finished at press time. Gregori has already faced both teams on the season. Game time is set for 5 p.m. The winner of that contest will take on Sheldon in the championship series on Thursday.

“They did a really good job of getting runners on and driving them in with their hits,” Gregori coach Alannah Johns said. “In general, we didn’t play our best game. We just have to make minor adjustments mentally and physically. We do that and we’ll come out a whole different club.”

Sheldon (29-2) scored in five of its first six innings, never really allowing the Jaguars to settle in.

The Huskies needed just two batters to open the scoring, using singles from Maci and Jordan Fines sandwiched around a passed ball to jump out to a 1-0 lead.

Jaciana Vasquez pushed the lead to 3-0 in the second inning with a two-run single, and a Vanessa Porto RBI ground out tacked on another run in the third.

Sheldon all but put the game away in the fourth, hitting through the order and plating four runs. A Sarah Fukushima sacrifice fly got the scoring started and Jessica Scott added a run-scoring infield single. A two-out, two-run error capped the rally as the Huskies took an 8-0 lead.

That was more than enough offense for Sheldon southpaw Taliyah Miles.

The junior limited Gregori to infield singles by Nicole Stewart and Ashley McBay, striking out 11 in throwing a complete game.

“It’s tough to win when you strike out that many times,” Johns said. “We didn’t put enough balls in play to give ourselves a chance. We did a good job of laying off of bad balls, but weren’t good enough opportunities we had with the balls in the zone.

“The good news is we have at least one more game. We need to make those minor adjustments I talked about and come out with a vengeance. We do that and we should have a good chance.”

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Gregori shut down by top seed Sheldon."